Is marriage good for black folks’ wallets?

Sounds like a stupid question but I think it deserves serious discussion. We know marriages are increasingly uncommon among black folk (here’s a clip from Oprah about how overwhelmingly single black women are), and it’s common sense that two incomes are better than one. So given African-Americans tend to have lower incomes and fewer assets than whites, doesn’t getting married make a ton of financial sense? Read more »

I’m joining the cult of personal finance bloggers who swear to get rid of all their debt and put their business  in the street by blogging about it. Actually, I’ve been talking about paying everything off for years and took the first steps by organizing my own finances a few weeks ago (I still owe y’all a post about how I did that). My resolve went up this morning when my homegirl Frugalista hit me up about people commenting on her blog that they had no idea what the interest rates on their credit cards were because they carried no balances. Then she sent me this link to a New York Times story about people New Yorkers who tightened their belts to afford overpriced cribs in the big city.

Hell, if somebody in NY can do that, I can certainly make it happen in Cincinnati. So here’s the deal: I’m putting myself on a plan to get rid of $25,120.19 in debt by Dec. 31, 2009. Read more »

Proof that being wealthy is more about knowing how to manage money than it is about having a high income: a former member of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2005 Super Bowl winning team is being sued for not paying the dealership where he bought his Aston Martin.

I mean sure, anybody can make a mistake and bounce a check…but three? And who buys a used Aston Martin, anyway?

Get more on Sports here: Playa Hater

I planned to do these once a week but I’ve been off my game since there was so much other stuff going on in the economy.

Carol D. asks:

What suggestions would you give a single mom who would like to buy her first home?

First pat yourself on the back for making the decision to buy. Then start asking yourself some hard questions. Right now is a great time in general; there’s a glut of houses for sale, so it’s a buyer’s market. And interest rates are down from their peak in recent months, but there’s always caveats.  One reason so many houses are on the market is because in many places homes are still overpriced. When you’re seriously looking, do some negotiating; definitely don’t look to pay full price. And while mortgage rates are lower, banks have cut back lending severely due to all the money they lost on subprime. That means it’ll be harder for you to qualify for a mortgage.

Do your research. Evaluate how much you can really afford to spend on a monthly payment, and use web sites like mortgage-calc.com to help you do the math. Remember you have to figure in insurance, maintenance and condo fees into that cost as well. Don’t overextend yourself.

Check your credit reports from all three agencies and look at your FICO score. If it’s under 700, you’re probably going to need to clean some things up before a bank will lend to you. And if there are any errors, get them addressed. Lastly, save some money! The days of zero-down mortgages are behind us (I was never that big a fan). You’ll need to come to the table with at least 5 % if not more of the purchase price to get a decent rate, or maybe to get a mortgage at all.

Good luck.

Usually if you’re up at 2 am playing a game on the Internet, I’d have jokes for you. But that’s exactly what I’m doing now and it’s what inspired this post.

I got myself addicted to a new Facebook app called “Mob Wars.” Sounds corny but the game is sick (that’s sick in a good way for the unwashed) for the way it can actually teach you something about entrepreneurship and how capitalism works. Read more »

So the Fed lowered rates again today, but what else is new? The government is scrambling to try to keep the economy from going further into the tank, but over the last week all the election coverage has been about what Barack Obama’s former pastor said. After opening my mailbox yesterday, I want to see more discussion of Obama and Clinton’s healthcare plans — since I got a taste of what it’s like to be uninsured in the mail.

Read more »

Must be nice being a big corporation; they always get bailed out when their bills are too much for them to handle. Case in point: The government is giving Bear Stearns, one of the biggest firms on Wall Street, up to $30 billion to back up bad investments. That’s in addition to the fact that Bear Stearns is being sold for one percent of what it was worth just last Friday, meaning a whole lotta shareholders stand to lose a whole lotta money. Read more »

$3.27 a gallon. That’s the latest record for national average gas prices, according to AAA. If that ain’t bad enough, it’s already higher in some places and most economists think the cost of a gallon of gas will hit $3.50 or $3.75 within a few months.

Thing is, I don’t believe that the jump in gas prices is just a recent phenomenon related to all the other problems in the economy. I went back to look at data from the past few years, and the price of gas has more than doubled (all while oil companies have reported record profits). In Sept. 2000, the month I bought my current car, a gallon of regular cost $1.50 a gallon on average, compared to that $3.27 today.

Public transportation never looked so good.

When I bought my car almost eight years ago (yep, that long ago, and still running fine), it cost me about $12 to fill the tank. I lived in Baltimore at the time and loved the fact that with good gas mileage, I could make the four-hour drive to see my family in Pittsburgh on one tank, so even with tolls, it cost me less to drive home than it would have to hop the Greyhound.

Now I live about five hours away in Cincinnati and I can still do the whole drive on a little more than one tank. Difference is, that same tank of gas today runs me north of $35. And its getting no better anytime soon. Read more »

…Or lack of them. Today’s a big day for the economy, because the government will report whether there were more jobs created or more people got laid off in February. If the number’s good, the stock market probably jumps and more importantly, consumers might feel more secure and start spending a little and boost the economy. If it’s bad, well, get ready for more pain.

My uneducated guess: can’t be too good. I talked to a friend of mine the other day who’s company did a massive layoff. People are losing their jobs out there and people who still have their jobs are nervous.

UPDATE: The number’s in and my boy’s coworkers weren’t the only ones who lost their jobs. 63,000 jobs went away in February, the largest monthly job loss in the country since 2003 and the second month in a row when jobs were lost.

Nervous yet? Hearing any rumors about layoffs where you work?